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Shuckle may look like a great defensive powerhouse, but defenses are where it stops for poor Shuckle. Weakness to Bullet Punch, Stone Edge, and a weakness to SR really hold it back. It's downright pitiful HP is also a negative point. Basically, it's the opposite of Wailord and Drifblim: Huge defenses, terrible HP. It also has a terrible attacking movepool and terrible offensive stats. But it's not all bad for Shuckle. Base 230 defenses is nothing to mess with, and has effectively base 417 SpD in Sand, assuming max investment.

Abilities:

Gluttony: Don't even bother, lol
Sturdy: Use this. You can't be OHKOed (not saying he ever could..)
Contrary (DW): This would've been SO good if Shuckle got Shell Smash. Your offenses harshly fall, but you gain +1 in each defense. Too bad he doesn't, making this useless.

Shuckle is very interesting, but very slow pokemon. It got some new toys like guard split and power split. However its biggest counter is TAUNT! After that its going to likely throw pathetic attacks against your team.

The first set obviously loves sand support and is essentially shut down by taunt. The second set say "move over deoxys, there's and new heavy hitter in town." However, this set works best in rotation battles, followed by doubles and triples, due to the fact it needs trick room to function properly.

Well , this Strategy work only in double and treble. You need a pokemon with Skill Swap or Role Play so you can take the ability , Contrary. Then you can boost your allies special attack by using Struggle Bug. Rest to keep Shuckle healthy. And you can add the other moves which can be useful.

In doubles it can do decently with EQ until a Flying type/Levitate user/Priority abuser/Choice scarf user comes by.

Trick room always goes last and Shuckle's slow speed makes sure it's sturdy defenses are still up while it's getting pummeled, so it has a chance at setting up Trick room + Power trick, but since it's doubles, you'll have to really rely on OHKOs on both ends of your team because after that, a good hit and Shuckle is definitely dead.

Shuckle is one of my favorite Pokemon and I've actually been able to use it successfully with an original set. It works best with its Special Defense boosted in a Sandstorm causing additional passive damage, so Tyranitar/Hippowdon/Hippopotas have great synergy with it. Mind you, this set hates Steel and Poison types, so Magnezone and Heatran are also good teammates.

Wrap acts as a pseudo-trapping move that causes passive damage, complimented by Toxic and Sandstorm damage. It also allows you to not be completely walled by Steel types and Poison types.

Toxic is toxic, enough said. It's passive damage that racks up to take down your opponent.

Power Split averages your measly attack with your opponent's, crippling them. When used in conjunction with Wrap, they're stuck and unable to do much damage to you.

Rest: Reliable recovery, status remover. After using the other 3 moves, you won't have much left to do. Rest heal you and prevents you from overusing and PP draining your moves in a stall war. Very few things can 2 or 3ko Shuckle. You'll be able to set up, then Rest in most situations without much of a problem.

Countering Shuckle:
Gengar completely walls the set and most Steel and Poison types mostly wall it as well.

Well , this Strategy work only in double and treble. You need a pokemon with Skill Swap or Role Play so you can take the ability , Contrary. Then you can boost your allies special attack by using Struggle Bug. Rest to keep Shuckle healthy. And you can add the other moves which can be useful.

Okay, so the point is to have one Shuckle keep struggle bugging the other until you max out Sp. Atk, then use Sludge Bomb~

Rest is for obvious healing reasons. There's also Guard Split which could share one Shuckle's defense with the other. Power Split gives the Shuckle's attack to someone else before Struglle Bugging. Protect is just there, for filler actually.

Shuckle is a beastly defensive beast. Its HP is horrible at Base 20 but Base 230 defenses apiece more than make up for it. Depending on EV investment and Nature it can boost one of its Defenses to more than 600 or around 500 apiece. That is higher than any other Pokemon in the game. Not to mention its gets that Sp. Defense boosg from Sandstorm... Shuckle's other stats, however, are horrible. Base 10 in each offense is wimpy at best and Base 5 Speed makes molasses seem fast. However, Shuckle does have two tricks that work perfectly with its poor offensive stats: Power Trick and Power Split. The former requires Trick Room support to pull off successfully, but the latter can be used in any situation. I think Shuckle's bulk enables it to be used in most tiers.
Recommended tiers: NU-OU

Sturdy is the ability to use. When Shuckle has full HP, it will survive an attack that would normally OHKO it with 1 HP. A huge improvement from 4th gen.Gluttony is totally useless. No one uses pinch berries on Shuckle.
Shuckle is one of the only Pokemon to get Contrary. All of Shuckle's stat boosts become stat drops and vice versa. However, it lacks any moves that can benefit from it. It could be used in Double and Triple battles, but I think Sturdy is still a stronger choice.

Defensive/Supportive Shuckle should not be running offensive moves unless they have Power Split. Most of their damage will come from Toxic. Rest is important for recovery, but unlike most Pokemon Shuckle can usually survive the two turns of Sleep with HP to spare. Encore is a great choice since Shuckle is often used as set-up fodder; locking a foe into a single move is always great. Shuckle can also set up Stealth Rocks (provided its a 4th gen Shuckle), and it has the bulk to set them up multiple times throughout a match. Knock Off can be used as well.

As I said before, Shuckle's trump cards are Power Trick and Power Split. Power Split evenly divides Shuckle's Attack and Sp. Attack with the target, which can be downright crippling to them and usually forces switches. It also beefs up Shuckle's offensive stats by an enormous amount, making attacking viable. Power Trick switches Shuckle's Attack and Defense stats, making it a super-slow Pokemon with incredible Attack, paper-like Defense, and super-high Sp. Defense. It can only be viable in Trick Room.

Shuckle has only a couple of offensive options to use alongside its trumps. It gets the EdgeQuake combo, which is always nice. Gyro Ball works perfectly with Shuckle's snail-like speed. All that's left is Return/Frustration.

I saw an interesting Shuckle set on Youtube that used Rollout, Defense Curl (from 3rd gen tutors), Power Split, and Rest. The Defense Curl/Rollout combo combined with the Attack increases from Power Split allowed Shuckle to pull off some respectable damage. And if it got too weak, it would just Rest.

Double and Triple options: I think multi-Pokemon battles are where Shuckle shines the most. I myself have a Shuckle that uses Power Split and Guard Split. A Pokemon that has shared defenses with Shuckle becomes extremely hard to KO unless Toxic or a Phazing move is used. You can also use Trick Room and Power Trick on the same turn, unlike in Singles.

Countering Shuckle: It's virtually impossible to OHKO a Shuckle with no stat alterations (in fact, I think the only ones who even have a shot are +6 Haxorus, banded Zekrom, and Specs Reshiram). Heck, it's hard to even 3HKO this thing. However, Shuckle does have several disadvantages. It's weak to Stealth Rock, which really cripples its bulk. Its only means of recovery is Rest, and with the new Sleep mechanics in 5th gen, it can end up sleeping for a long time. Finally, it usually can't do much directly to its opponent.

If Power Split or Power Trick are used, however, things get tricky. Since Power Trick only has a shot of working in Trick Room, and Shuckle will be out-slowing everything in it, physical priority moves are your best shot. Bullet Punch, Mach Punch...whatever. Also, since Shuckle needs time to set up, two turns of TR will always be wasted in a Single Battle (one to switch to Shuckle, and the other to set up Power Trick).

Taunt completely ruins all variants of Shuckle. It NEEDS its non-offensive moves to function properly. Without them, it becomes helpless.

Support shunkle: Toxic is the best way to beat a foe by shunkle means.Knock off is to troll taunters by removing their precious leftovers/life orb/lum berry anything..

The third slot is for supporting the team: encore is good for: stalling and letting a team mate set up, safe guard protect you and your team from satus for 5 turns.. useful, power split (> bug struggle) cut all offenses, sand storm is so special atacks act to you like they act to blissey- useless.. and stealth rock is... stealth rock

the next spot is for staling rest is shunkle's sole recovery move and protect helps with: predicting and toxic damage.

now DANCE shunkle!

Last edited by Ilan; 4th March 2012 at 4:42 PM.

Originally Posted by Professor Oak

Only two things are infinite, the universe and the amount of zubat in caves, and I'm not sure about the former.

First you use Power Split to split your horrible attack with the opponent's, ruining their stats. Then Power Trick. Now you don't have horrible defenses and you still have a super powerful attack. Then you basically rape the opponent with an onslaught of physical attacks. Earthquake because it's Earthquake. Stone Edge is your strongest STAB but has poor accuracy so you have Rock Slide which is much weaker but has better accuracy. Stealth Rock is always good to set up. Finally, it'd be good to pull of a parahax so I threw in Body Slam.

Last edited by Serpentine; 4th March 2012 at 4:41 PM.
Reason: Forgot Ability

Last edited by sbktdreed; 5th March 2012 at 4:37 PM.
Reason: changes from a reply and to add ther countering advices

Got Pokémon X. Intend to get either Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire.
No info about my Friend Safari.
Vivillon Pattern: Polar
Looking for nicknamed, shiny, and/or have a hidden ability in GTS and may battle at anytime.
If interested, send a private message with your ID #.

Strategy: Come in during Trick Room (or have a Doubles/Triples partner use it) and set up a few Contrary Rock Polishes. Once ready, Power Trick and sweep. Rock Blast helps with Substitutes and Focus Sashes while Gyro Ball is your bread-and-butter Move.

Support shunkle: Toxic is the best way to beat a foe by shunkle means.Knock off is to troll taunters by removing their precious leftovers/life orb/lum berry anything..

The third slot is for supporting the team: encore is good for: stalling and letting a team mate set up, safe guard protect you and your team from satus for 5 turns.. useful, power split (> bug struggle) cut all offenses, sand storm is so special atacks act to you like they act to blissey- useless.. and stealth rock is... stealth rock

the next spot is for staling rest is shunkle's sole recovery move and protect helps with: predicting and toxic damage.

In all honestly, I’m a skeptic when it comes to this turtle, but this comment is affected by the fact I spend most of my time in Double Battles. I can only recall seeing a Shuckle in Doubles use Gastro Acid on my Serene Grace Togekiss, and maybe it using Power Split on my Garchomp. But then again, both of those instances don’t sound like the best use of Shuckle. Anyways...

Base 20 HP is horrible, but the insane base 230 Defense and Special Defense does balance things out a bit more. However, base 10 Attack and Special Attack and base 5 Speed means that under normal circumstances this thing isn’t really going to do much outside of being a wall.

Abilities:Sturdy – With full health, Shuckle can’t be OHKO’ed. A very nice ability, this is one of the best choices.

Gluttony – Shuckle eats its held Berry earlier than usual. Being that Leftovers are far better to choose for healing Shuckle with, this ability won’t see any use.

Contrary – Reverses the positive and negative effects of stats done to Shuckle (both by itself and others). This is one of the coolest abilities around, but it’s a shame that Shuckle doesn’t have any moves to take advantage of this. This ability would work best in Doubles and Triples as its allies could assist it in activating its effects.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: yes, this set is insane to use. Power Trick swaps Shuckle’s Defense with its Attack, meaning it will now have base 230 Attack but base 10 Defense. This means that you are the most delicate glass cannon in the universe. If you can pull it off, you will deal some massive damage. No matter what, you need, NEED Trick Room support if you ever hope for Shuckle to even attempt surviving with base 5 Speed. This cannot be stressed enough.

Anyways, in the way of offense, Stone Edge and Earthquake form the famous Edgequake combo; Rock Slide can be used for better accuracy. The fourth slot could have Return as a maxed happiness Shuckle will surely overkill anything that doesn’t resist its power.

I decided the Rocky Helmet may come in handy in case your opponent takes advantage of Shuckle’s now terrible Defense with a direct Physical attack; dealing passive damage for direct attacks could potentially break an opponent’s Focus Sash or Sturdy.

You definitely want Sturdy as the ability option so you can survive a lethal hit.

Drain away your opponent’s health with Toxic while Shuckle stands tall with its huge bulk. Protect allows more stalling for Toxic damage and Leftovers recovery. Rest could also be used to recover health, although having to sleep for two turns may not be so appealing. Substitute could add even more bulk as well as protect Shuckle from status conditions and Leech Seed. Stealth Rock can deal extra damage on opponents switching in. Finally, so that you have something to use in case Taunt is thrown your way, Struggle Bug is recommended more for how it lowers the target’s Special Defense, meaning Shuckle in a sense can provide Special Attack “boosts” to its allies.